2022 Favorites

Post-Roe realities, reproductive oppression

• The Ostensibly Pro-Life Act of IVF Is Now Endangered: Without Roe v. Wade, language in some abortion bans leaves IVF with an uncertain—possibly criminal—future. I spoke with experts on the anti-abortion fetal personhood movement’s threat to fertility technologies.

• TikToks About 'Traumatizing' IUD Pain Go Viral as Some Doctors Refuse to Remove Them: I spoke to frustrated TikTokers with IUDs on walking the difficult line between demanding that their pain be taken seriously, and wanting followers to still trust health care workers.

• Woman With Severe Chronic Pain Was Denied Medication for Being ‘Childbearing Age’: I spoke with a woman with a painful chronic illness about her experience being denied a vital medication because she’s of childbearing age and the medication could result in birth defects—even as she has no plans to be pregnant.

• Tribal Land Is Suddenly at the Center of the Fight for Abortion Access: I spoke to Indigenous reproductive justice activists on Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt's threats to abortion on tribal land, how this builds on a tradition of the U.S. policing Indigenous people's reproductive decisions, and why non-Indigenous people shouldn’t turn to tribal land as "abortion havens” post-Roe.

• Abortion Has Touched Your Life, Whether You’ve Had One or Not: I wrote about how abortion stigma has erased and invisibilized the vast ways abortion has affected everyone’s life whether you’ve had one or not.

• Your State Probably Still Allows Forced Sterilizations: I spoke with experts on new research revealing how loopholes still allow people with disabilities to be sterilized against their will.

• Senate Dems Propose $350 Million Fund to Cover Travel and Abortion-Related Costs: I spoke with Sen. Patty Murray on a landmark bill to fund associated abortion-related costs, and Senate Democrats’ post-Roe strategies on abortion.

• Insurance Companies Are Giving Ridiculous Reasons For Not Covering New Birth Control Methods: I also spoke with Sen. Murray at the beginning of the year on a pattern of insurance companies refusing to cover different birth control methods unless people can prove certain methods didin’t work for them.

• House Republicans Blame Depleted Social Security Funds on Abortion, Fetuses Not Showing Up to Work: Abortion bans allow politicians to control the means of reproduction and guarantee new, future generations of workers to exploit. I wrote about how a Republican Congress member all but admitted this post-Roe.

• Stop Telling People in Red States to Move When They're Faced With Devastating Bans: I talked to organizers for reproductive justice and gender-affirming care in red states about challenging condescending, dehumanizing blue-state liberal narratives about their vitally important work.

Pregnancy, surveillance, and carcerality

• Some State Attorneys General Are Vowing Not to Enforce Abortion Bans: I talked to state attorneys general about the ongoing threat of pregnancy and abortion criminalization and their role in protecting pregnant people post-Roe from rogue prosecutors and police departments.

• Most People Criminalized for Inducing Abortion Are Turned in by Doctors, Not Internet Activity: I talked to researchers and legal experts about a new report that shows most criminal charges for self-managed abortion stem from acquaintances and doctors reporting them to police, despite greater emphasis by lawmakers on digital surveillance resulting in criminalization.

• How Crisis Pregnancy Centers Help Anti-Abortion Legislatures: Crisis pregnancy centers have increasingly become a state-funded surveillance apparatus for the anti-abortion movement that could place pregnant people at legal risk. I talked to experts on how much of a threat they pose to patient privacy.

• Google Has A Responsibility to Protect Abortion Seekers’ Data, Democrats Say: Location data and other user data are often key evidence in criminal cases targeting people for pregnancy loss or abortion. I talked to an online privacy expert about Google and the post-Roe future.

Costs and impacts of sexual violence

• Beyond the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp Trial, the Term ‘Mutual Abuse’ Hurts All Victims: Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial resulted in the dangerous myth of “mutual abuse” spreading across the internet. I talked to experts about how this term victim-blames survivors and frames them as abusers for fighting back, defending themselves, or being “imperfect victims.”

• Sexual Assault Survivors Are Being Billed Thousands for Emergency Care: I talked to an abortion provider and health care researcher on his study that showed sexual assault survivors are paying thousands out-of-pocket for medical care after being assaulted.

• Domestic Abuse Survivor Who Won Landmark Supreme Court Case Is Found Dead in Her Home: I spoke to the family and legal team of a domestic violence survivor who was mysteriously found dead shortly after winning a landmark case for mothers like her who flee their home countries to the U.S. to escape abusers.

• Lyft Pays Shareholders $25 Million for Driver Sexual Assaults—But Nothing for Survivors: I spoke with survivor-activist Alison Turkos about her lawsuit in Lyft after being raped by a driver, and how she says the company and its shareholders profited from her trauma.

• Campus Sexual Assault Survivors Have Always Feared Defamation Lawsuits: Amber Heard and Johnny Depp’s defamation trial affected all survivors, including those who aren’t wealthy celebrities. Defamation lawsuits have long threatened and silenced all survivors, including on college campuses. I talked to an expert at campus sexual assault organization Know Your IX on how the trial’s public nature could make lawsuits like this more prevalent.

• Maybe Herschel Walker Actually Doesn't Remember Paying for That Abortion: I wrote an essay about Herschel Walker’s claims to not even remember the woman who said he paid for her abortion, and how women’s trauma or formative experiences inflicted on them by men are often casual and forgettable to those who harmed them.

• Angelina Jolie Is Already Getting the Amber Heard Treatment After Accusing Brad Pitt of Abuse: I wrote about the public response to Angelina Jolie alleging Brad Pitt harmed her and her kids and its similarities to the response to Amber Heard. When women accuse men—especially beloved public male figures—of abuse, men are often framed as their victims.

Reproductive and survivor justice

• Abortion Bans Are Disregarding the Lives of Sexual Assault Survivors: I talked to survivors and advocates about how rape exceptions to abortion bans fail to meaningfully help victims, forcing them to prove their trauma for health care. And by increasingly removing these exceptions from their bans, Republican politicians are finally saying the quiet part out loud.

• Anti-Sexual Violence Organizations Are Too Quiet About Roe v. Wade: Abortion bans amount to state reproductive coercion, which is a form of intimate partner violence. These laws carry outsized harm for survivors. Why didn’t more top, national survivor justice organizations speak out in support of reproductive rights post-Roe?

Favorite interviews :)

• ‘He Really Is That Funny:' Gisele Fetterman Weighs in on Her Husband's Viral Bid for Senate: I talked to Gisele Fetterman, wife of Pennsylvania Senator-elect John Fetterman and a key surrogate on his campaign, about maintaining a sense of humor on the campaign trail.

• Perhaps It's Time to Think Beyond the 'Violence Against Women Act': I talked to abolitionist scholars Gina Dent and Beth Richie on their book Abolition Feminism Now, co-authored with Angela Davis and Erica Meiners, about the failure of carceral and state solutions to gender-based violence—including the Violence Against Women Act.

• Ruth Wilson Gilmore Says Freedom Is a Physical Place—But Can We Find It?: I talked to Ruth Wilson Gilmore about her 2022 book Abolition Geography and seeking material solutions to capitalism and carcerality.

• The ‘Only Murders’ Murderer Exploited an Industry Built on Exploitation: I talked to Only Murders in the Building’s season 2 killer Adina Verson on how the show pokes fun at the exploitative nature of the billion-dollar true crime podcast industry.

• Dependably 'Blue' State Oregon Could Elect a Right-Wing, Anti-Abortion Governor: I talked to Oregon Governor-elect Tina Kotek—the state’s first openly lesbian governor—on the thorny politics of a state often dismissively written off as Democratic, and why her race was key to protecting abortion rights in the Pacific Northwest.

• Women Secretaries of State Are the ‘Last Line of Defense’ Against Far Right Lies: I talked to Arizona Governor-elect Katie Hobbs, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Leigh Chapman, and Georgia assembly member Bee Nguyen about the gendered violence that lies about the 2020 election inflicted on them.

• There Was Boundless Energy for Women Candidates in 2018. Now, Just Apathy: I talked to several women candidates and experts on where the groundswell of energy for electing women in 2018 went this year.

• Great-Grandma Who Protested at Supreme Court Alleges 'Inhumane' Treatment at D.C. Jail: I talked to Rolande Baker, a great-grandma who had a pre-Roe v. Wade abortion, about being arrested for protesting at the Supreme Court and the inhumane conditions at the D.C. jail.

• Abortion Clinic Escorts Are Putting Their ‘Bodies On the Line’: I talked to author Lauren Rankin on her new book on the persistent history of anti-abortion violence targeting clinics, and where abortion clinic volunteers can direct their energy as clinics shut down post-Roe.

Misc.

• There’s No Such Thing As a ‘Pro-Life Feminist’: I talked to young feminists about the anti-abortion movement’s insidious recent efforts to present as feminist through propping up female leaders and spokespeople and pushing the age-old lie that abortion somehow harms women.

• The Backlash Against Sunisa Lee’s Interracial Relationship Is All Too Familiar to Asian Women: I talked to Asian feminist activists about intracommunity misogyny and “men’s rights Asians,” who have exploited the #StopAsianHate movement to present as victims and frame Asian women as their oppressors.

• Elon Musk and Other Wealthy Celebs Keep Cosplaying As Poor People. Why?: I talked to an expert on why Elon Musk, who claimed at one point this year to be homeless, love pretending to be poor to advance a capitalistic narrative of struggle and meritocracy.

• In 'Everything Everywhere All at Once,' Intergenerational Trauma Is a Black Hole: I wrote about the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once and how it resonates with children of immigrants processing generational divides with our parents.

• Hollywood's Best Punchline Is the 'Girlboss': I wrote about a pattern of hit 2022 shows satirizing the once highly respected “girlboss” capitalist figure, and what that says about identity politics today.

• The NBA Is Horny. No Wonder the Fanfic Is So Good: I talked to women NBA fans about the underground world of oft horny NBA fan fiction and how their communities challenge preconceived, hypermasculine notions of what sports fandom looks like.

• I Can’t Stop Thinking About These NBA Players’ Tweets From 10 Years Ago: I blogged about the particular joy of digging up NBA stars’ old tweets, a reminder of their humble and endearing roots.